BOSTON, May 21, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (The Cable Show 2012, Booth #1567) — Last week, Comcast rolled out its consumer widescreen High-Definition (HD) video calling experience made possible through advanced technology provided by Technicolor (Paris:TCH) , a worldwide technology leader in the media and entertainment sector and Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home. Technicolor provided the custom-developed adapter, powered by Entropic's integrated broadcast system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, to give Xfinity customers an interactive video calling experience – making video or audio calls with friends and family while watching the same TV program simultaneously – over their existing set-top box, TV or wireless LAN network.

"There is a large and growing market for interactive applications over broadcast TV," said Jason Blackwell, director, Service Provider Strategies, Digital Consumer Practice at Strategy Analytics. "Technicolor and Entropic's video chat over live TV solution represents one of the first in a new wave of Social TV applications that will drive operator services and increases in ARPU (Average Revenue per User) with triple-play services."

Comcast's experience delivers an unparalleled two-way video communications dialogue over a live broadcast stream. The Technicolor 720p HD telepresence adapter leverages the media processing power and performance from Entropic's ARM® Cortex™-A9 CPU (PNX8471) of SoC solutions. This solution showcases Entropic's innovation to integrate a new value-added service, a HD video call, on its platform by augmenting a web-enabled technology with traditional broadcast. Specifically, Entropic's client-based SoC technologies act as a HDMI pass-through that connects to a live event (the HD video conference) from a remote connection (the cloud); affording Comcast the ability to have video as an overlay on top of its TV content, or as a picture-in-picture.

"We selected the Technicolor and Entropic solution because their joint vision and ability to execute proved valuable in allowing us to integrate new digital services, like video conferencing, into our traditional service packages," said Steve Reynolds, senior vice president of Premise Technology for Comcast. "The device developed by Technicolor uses the advanced capabilities of Entropic's ARM-based SoC to enable us to quickly develop and deploy new video-centric applications."

"Comcast is at the forefront of mass adoption of video services," said Barbara Bessolo, senior vice president of Technicolor's Set-top Box Division. "We have been working with our long-term partner, Entropic, to deliver a powerful telepresence experience that uses advancements in HDMI pass-through technology to overlay the remote video with a local preview while watching Comcast's TV service."

"Social TV has arrived, and we are proud to have worked with Technicolor and our ecosystem partners to drive a movement to where video chat over live TV exists," said Mark Samuel, senior vice president, Set-top Box Group, Entropic Communications. "We combined the best of broadcast with broadband technologies to enable Comcast to securely deliver high-quality HD video calls with superior picture quality."

Entropic's PNX84xx integrated broadcast SoC family includes all the major building blocks needed to develop next generation set-top box and client applications for global cable, satellite and IPTV networks. Key highlights include: superior video and audio quality, best web browsing through the ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, an advanced 3D GPU, flexible content decoding, advanced 3DTV processing, efficient power management, and support for Linux and Google Android® Operating Systems.

Availability

Comcast began its national rollout of its Xfinity HD video conferencing service on May 15th. For more information regarding availability, please visit www.comcast.com/skype. The technology will be demonstrated at The Cable Show 2012 in Boston, May 21-23, 2012.

About Technicolor

Technicolor, a worldwide technology leader in the media and entertainment sector, is at the forefront of digital innovation. Our world class research and innovation laboratories enable us to lead the market in delivering advanced video services to content creators and distributors. We also benefit from an extensive intellectual property portfolio focused on imaging and sound technologies, based on a thriving licensing business.Our commitment: Enhance media experience on any screen, in theaters, at home and on the go. Euronext Paris: TCH • www.technicolor.com.

About Entropic Communications

Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR) is a leading global provider of silicon and software solutions to enable connected home entertainment. The Company transforms how traditional HDTV broadcast and streaming video content is seamlessly, reliably, and securely delivered, processed, and distributed into and throughout the home. Entropic's next-generation home connectivity and set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions enable Pay-TV service providers to offer consumers a more captivating whole-home entertainment experience by delivering new, high-performing ways to connect, engage, and enjoy multimedia content. For more information, visit Entropic at: www.entropic.com.

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Entropic's STB SoC technology, its related prospects, its role in the future of home networking and statements regarding Technicolor's leadership in delivering devices in conjunction with Entropic products or in any of the applications or markets mentioned herein, and statements regarding the anticipated benefits from the collaboration between Entropic and Technicolor. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Entropic's and/or Technicolor's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the success of the collaboration between Entropic and Technicolor, which will depend, in part, on each company continuing to devote sufficient resources to achieve the goals of the collaboration; the ability of both Entropic and Technicolor to successfully address technical challenges and introduce new and enhanced products on a timely basis; risks associated with market acceptance of new products developed by Entropic and Technicolor; the risk associated with market acceptance for Comcast's Xfinity Video Calling Experience; the effect of intellectual property rights claims; the effects of competition, including the risk that other wireline or wireless technologies may achieve greater market acceptance than solutions developed by Entropic or Technicolor; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Entropic's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2012. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Entropic and Technicolor are providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.